fire or iron golem

[cccp is cooler than you]

Hi i would like to know which of the following maxed out would be better? Fire golem or iron golem with a pretty shamful item (probably one bought in an vendors) and if iron golem then what sort of item should i use eg. shield weapon etc :undecided:

[Dis Skillz]

Is this for PvM? I don't think either would do all that much damage even maxed out if thats what your goal is. A popular (correct me if im wrong), and cheap choice would be an IK Maul for an Iron Golem. You can trade for one with a few pgems. I don't know about its survivability, someone else can fill you in on that.

Clay Golems are usually the choice golem to use since he slows down monsters quite a bit, and is great against bosses when you add decrepify = sloooooow Baal =D

[cccp is cooler than you]

Well hmm then okay what would be the best choice of golem then? maybe blood golem but im building a summoner so i dont think ill need the life tap? and i dont think i need clay golems slowing because i can use decrepify and well that leaves me with fire or iron and i know knowing me :) i will create a really **** character who cant even afford a ik maul so oh i dont know plz help? :undecided:

[Dis Skillz]

Again I would say Clay for fighting just regular monsters even while having Decrepify. The reason is while the clay golem is busy slowing anything he hits or any monsters that hit him, I will cast Amplify Damage instead of using Decrepify against groups of monsters so that my skeletons+revives+mercenary can do a great deal of damage. At least, thats my reasoning behind using a Clay Golem instead of the others.

As for the IK Maul, it really should not cost you more than a few perfect gems. If the person asks for more valuable stuff, then they are trying to rip you off.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that by using a Fire or Iron Golem you will ruin your build or do horribly. My personal preference is a Clay Golem, and being a summoner I will assume you will at least put 1 point into Revive. Iron Golem is a Prerequisite for Revive so you can play with him and see if you like using him.

The great thing about a summoner is you have a lot of options to go with depending on your personal style. After maxing Skeleton Mastery and Raise Skeleton, you are left with plenty of points to do what you like. Having at least 1 point in most of the Curses will still leave you with a good amount of points in other places.

In the past I have (in addition to Max Raise Skeleton+Mastery):
Maxed Skeleton Mage
Maxed Corpse Explosion (always handy, good to have regardless, not necessary to put 20 points in with the right gear)
High Revive (about 10-15 points)

I typically don't put more than 1 point into a Golem unless I just want to beef his hit points up after I am satisfied with my other skills.

In a typical game (Hell), I have my (might)mercenary+myself+and clay golem. I run around act 1 where my merc starts killing to raise my army. My other option is to go through Anya's Act 5 portal (if you are there yet) and raise as much skeletons as I can from Nihlathak's garden.

I've rambled on enough I think =D If you have any other questions or would like to hear any experiences I have had using my summoners, don't hesitate to ask!

[Mitch Turnbuckle]

Hello dudes,


A safe bet is to put 15-20 points into Golem Mastery, and 1 point into each Golem. Both the Clay and Iron Golems are both powerful enough with this skill point distribution. The Fire Golem is a bit of a mixed bag. It will always have the effect of drawing enemies towards it because of it's fire aura, but without a signiificant skill point investment and Lower Resist and possibly a Conviction Aura from Infinity, it will not do any noticeable damage in any difficulty. However, if you max Golem Mastery and Fire Golem and are going to use Lower Resist it can do some damage, just not enough to be worth the 19 additional skill points investment. It has been said before, but sadly the most noticeable effect that the Fire Golem has is it's ability to distract enemies.

See this thread for a detailed discussion about the Fire Golem:

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=508631

[cccp is cooler than you]

Well im still really confused lol :) ill just flip a 3 sided coin :)

[Mad Mantis]

Try reading the Golem FAQ first.

[kykle]

has anyone done the max FG experiment to see how it affects IG yet?

[cccp is cooler than you]

I've read golem fqa for ur info

[gerwen]

My golem observations:

For a skellie summoner, I don't think golems are much good for anything other than special purpose versatility. Their damage is pitiful compared to your skeleton army, so forget using them for damage.

Clay golem. One point wonder. His slow is awesome against bosses. Put kelpie snare on your merc, and watch the boss's slideshow animation. Spending more points on him (or mastery) makes him tougher, but who cares if he dies, he's a cheap summon. Summon another.

Fire golem. Just started experimenting with this guy. Damage is again pitiful, but i'm trying him out in hell to see if he'll help keep the monsters' focus off of me. Jury's still out.

Iron Golem. Haven't used much. Wasn't impressed with it when i tried. Only situation i can think of where he'd be useful is against a boss. He'd only be better than clay golem, if you can kill said boss without clay, and not lose any (or many) skellies, meaning you don't need clay's slow. If this is the case, create an Iron from something with crushing blow (or similar) to take down the boss faster.

[BlargX]

I'm a newbie, but I'd suggest you consider that you might get lots of +all necro skills and/or +summoning skills items as you go through the game. On shields, wands, amulets, helms, wherever. Right now at level 49, untwinked, I have one point in golem mastery, for instance, and and am at level 6 in it. There are plenty of good items left for me to find to boost that even more. So be careful about plowing points into a skill that has marginal or diminishing returns, and think about saving some points for a good while and seeing where you want to spend them later. You may find you like spending those points instead in a skill or two that pay off well from a few extra points, rather than one that eeks out a tiny advantage -- and maybe less and less each point -- when you spend yourself broke on it. Your +skills items may be able to take care of a lot of the points that at the moment you're convinced will have to be spent.

[Nagelfar]

Where's the golem FAQ?

I have a question about Iron Golems... Say, if you socket an IK maul with items, do the socketed jewels/etc transfer their benefits to the Iron Golems? What about runewords, will an Iron Golem made from a runeword have runeword benefits?

[Rottenmonkey]

To all of you who said to pump golem mastery, I think that 1 point in golem mastery is enough. With +skills, your golem is going to have at least 4k life, and if he dies, big deal. As previous posters stated, its a cheap summon (at least for clay golem, which I use). I suggest you just put one point in clay golem and golem mastery, and put the extra points in damage skills like skeleton mages, corpse explosion, etc. or protection for yourself i.e. bone armor, dim vision, attract.

[Mad Mantis]

Where's the golem FAQ?

The Mouldy Tome: Necromancer Guides, Tips and Tests (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=366742)

[Jaquiezz]

As a poor skelemancer go for clay golem. Why?

1. Blood golem does nothing
2. Fire golem's damage is pitiful compared to skeles and really doesn't kill much of anything in hell
3. Iron Golem is a beast, but only if you are willing to spend 5+ hrs on a good rune word.
4. Clay Golem has the highest life, which means its cast and forget.
5. Clay Golem has slow. Yes you have decrip, but a clay can slow them more then decrip, and doesn't require you to spam it. Its also additive with decrip- A decriped, slowed boss with a little cold damage won't be going any where. Not to mention, you can't use other curses if you rely on decrip for all your slow. Decrip is good for bosses, but I wouldn't use it on regular mobs. Clay gets in the fray and slows a few down while you amp.

If at some point you run into a good portion of wealth and you have all your gear for your mancer set, get a solid iron golem. Even then, Clay is a very useful golem. No one ever uses fire golem/blood golem, they just aren't effective any more.

Edit: 1pt Mastery/1pt Golem is plenty, unless you absolutly have nothing left to do with the rest of your points. In that case, split them between the two- Mastery for life, Golem for slow.

[WrongdayJ]

If you have access to a really good weapon or armor piece that you can afford to spend on the Golem, then the Iron Golem gets the nod. Especially if you make him out of something that has Crushing Blow on it.

The Clay Golem is useful for slowing things down, but ultimately I find that he doesn't do enough damage to things to justify his existance.

[Rancors]

if u want to use a wep with like concentration/might aura, then IG will be wtfpwn.

i'd go for clay. and for IG u need to pump up for it to be useful on the dmg return part. fire is alright but big mana cost, & blood is just bad.

[Jaquiezz]

wrongday- No one uses a golem for damage, not even a huge iron golem. A golem is used for its abilities and tankage. Your saying a several thousand life tank that has slow isn't worth 2 skill points? I really can't think of any one that would say no to that...

Look at any guide whos author has a clue. They NEVER mention Fire or Blood golems. 90% say clay, except where you can get useful effects from IG.

[Damric]

A lot of people including myself enjoy the 5th type of golem, mana-golems.

[WrongdayJ]

. . .wrongday- No one uses a golem for damage, not even a huge iron golem. A golem is used for its abilities and tankage. Your saying a several thousand life tank that has slow isn't worth 2 skill points? I really can't think of any one that would say no to that...

Hmm. I see your point. I agree with you that a buffed up Gumby is useful as a meat shield. And is he worth two skill points? Yes.

However- as far as using a Golem for damage, I disagree. Folks that don't take advantage of the damage capabilities of an Iron Golem are missing out on free serious butt-kicking. Make Rusty out of a weapon that has a fairly fast attack speed and Crushing blow and watch him hack away at a Bosses Hp's . . .and watch the boss hurt himself with each melee strike against him. IG's don't even really need Amp Damage either- although it helps alot. Example- I sat and deliberately watched my IG TANK Nightmare Mephisto solo. I'm not even gonna mention making an IG out of a fancy runeword that provides an aura. . .that just makes them sick.

[Darker Realm]

We Necromancers are so conservative when it comes to damage... because the Paladins, Sorceresses, and Amazons have all of it!

The Fire Golem does not have the exaggerated pitiful damage unless if one point is placed on it, even then a prebuff can allow a 1 point Fire Golem to deal some slight damage. It does pale to an entire army of Skeletons but has far more desireable Attack Rating and Damage than a single Skeleton.

However, it remains a fact that Fire Golem is additional damage, and therefore best used when added to Skeletons gives your character a kick when swooping down Cold Immunes and Unique Packs with a full army, or other players in PvP.

There are bound to be people with lackluster Fire Resistances. Most people cherish Lightning Resistance and stack on Physical Resistance. Therefore against ideal Paladins your Nec will be doing only a little more than 50% of the Physical Damage it has. Not as an alternative but as a reinforcement, use Elemental damage to pierce the Paladin.

More Later.

Yeah, so back on topic. Use Clay Golem mainly on monster packs and players and Fire after you have slowed them down!

[HCKull]

Clay golem is the best choice. I use it just like a zon's decoy so I cast it over and over. Clay cost about 1/5th the mana of fire to cast and I dont have an insight merc.

I am boosting golem mastery because I cast it ahead and want it to last under fire of hell souls while amp'ed.

[HarbingersOfSkulls]

Hi i would like to know which of the following maxed out would be better? Fire golem or iron golem with a pretty shamful item (probably one bought in an vendors) and if iron golem then what sort of item should i use eg. shield weapon etc :undecided:

Depends on your build...and on how many points you have to spend as well. I find that maxxing out golem mastery is more important than maxxing either rustbucket or flamer...the extra life/attack rating/and even run-walk speed is much more important than thorns damage & def bonus for the rustbucket or the fire absorb/fire damage and holy fire from the flamer.

Between the two of them...I went with rustbucket over the flamer golem...and after getting golem mastery maxxed out I added just a few points into rustbucket so that with +skills he will be a level 20...and I will spread the remaining points between blood and flamer which will give rustbucket more attack rating & life between the two.

HoS